Method and means for forming coil bindings



Sept. 20, 1938. D, MADDEN METHOD AND MEANS FOR FORMING COIL BINDINGSFiled Dec. 14, 1955 Wank/Madden Patented Sept. 20, 1938 UNITED STATESPATENT OFFICE METHOD AND MEANS FOR FORMING COIL BINDINGS 7 Claims.

My invention relates generally to an improved means for producingspirally curved metallic elements and is particularly directed to theproduction of spirally coiled binding elements for books.

5 A binding of this character is used with pages provided with a seriesof perforations along one edge. The spiral binding is threaded throughsaid perforations and, being continuous, thus ties said pages together.

Bindings of this character are rather loosely coiled and are made ofrelatively soft wire and are produced by my method by beingforcedendwise into a fixed die defining a spirally extending' pathway.The pathway is straight leading I to the die and the die is curved in apredetermined manner and the binding is produced without the necessityof providing moving parts ex cept for the feeding means. A machineembodying my invention preferably comprises two 20 feeding rollersarranged in a vertical stack and two guides. One guide is arranged ateach side of said rollers and each defines a relatively close fittingpathway. The guiding elements defining said passageway on the intakeside of said 25 rollers present a restriction to the free movement ofthe wire therethrough and thus maintains the wire taut. The guideextending between the outlet or discharge side of the rollers and theforming die forms a straight passage- 30 way which prevents the wirefrom buckling under the compression to which it is subjected by thefeeding rolls forcing it into said die. The wire thus is forced into themouth of said die when it is perfectly straight and supported lat- 35erally most of the distance and thus capable of withstanding substantialcompression vn'thout buckling.

The die element is removable from the machine frame and any one of aseries of appropri- 40 ately shaped dies can be removably secured inplace to give the spiral binding the proper di ameter and pitch. Atrough-like passageway extends from the die towards one side of themachine and carries off the coiled wire and pre- 45 vents distortionthereof.

The details of my invention and the mode of operation of a machineembodying said invention are hereinafter described with reference to theaccompanying drawing, in which:

50 Fig. l is an elevation of said machine illustrating the manner inwhich the coiled wire leaves the forming die;

Fig. 2 is a broken section of a. vertical elevation and shows the mannerin which the wire is means of securing a proper grip of said feedingrollers upon the wire;

Fig. 3 is a larger scaled horizontal section looking down upon the wire,the forming die and one of the feed rollers, said section being taken onthe line 33 in Fig. 4;

Fig. 4 is a vertical section on a slightly larger scale takensubstantially on the line 44 in Fig. 1 and illustrates the manner inwhich two feed rollers pull the wire and maintain it taut through one ofthe guide elements and push itv in a straight line through the otherinto the mouth of the forming die;

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of the forming die detached from its frame,and

Fig. 6 is a perspective view of the two halves of one of the guidingmembers, shown separated, but arranged in relative alinement.

A machine embodying my invention comprises two frame sides a betweenwhich sides feed rollers b are mounted. Each of said rollers is carriedbetween two vertically adjustable journal boxes 0, one at each end. Thelower feed roller journal boxes are adjustable by a feed screw 01 madein two sections and coupled together by .a feed nut d. As is illustratedin Fig. 2 the two sections of the feed screws are threaded left andright hand, respectively, and thus the rotation of the feed nut d in onedirection. will tend to draw them together and rotation in the oppositedirection will tend to force them apart. This produces, relatively,lowering of the journal boxes carrying the lower feed roll and raisingthereof, respectively.

The upper feed roll is likewise journaled in boxes and the boxes arecarried between vertically extending guide flanges a arranged exteriorlyof the side flange. The upper journal boxes are forced downwardly bycoiled compression springs e which encircle the push rodsf engaging theupper journal boxes. That is, the compression springs bear at theirlower ends upon the upper journal boxes, encircle the push rods and attheir upper ends bear against a portion of the frame side a. The pushrods are threaded at f and carry adjusting nuts 9/ upon said threadedends. Said nuts by rotation can move the push rods upwardly anddownwardly and correspondingly compress and loosen the compression towhich the springs e are subject. The springs e are adjusted in thismanner to vary the grip of the rollers upon the wire h.

The wire is moved longitudinally of the frame a by said rollers and intothe forming die i. Said forming die preferably is removable from andadjustable upon the frame a and to this end is provided with a flattenedbase 2" provided with an elongated aperture i2 thru which a fasteningstud 7' is secured. Extending upwardly and obliquely therefrom is theneck portion of i3 of the die which defines the helical curved path k.Preferably less than one turn of said path is defined by said portion 13so that the first coil can be released therefrom onto the trough-likechute Z which serves as a guide extending laterally therefrom. The chuteis connected to the frame by cap screws Z passing thru ears extendinglaterally therefrom.

Extending substantially the entire distance between the mouth of the dieZ and the rollers b is a guiding member comprising two halves m and m.The upper half m of the guiding member is grooved, as at m2, toaccommodate and encircle the wire it which passes therethrough. Capscrews 11. secure the two halves together and fasten them to the frame,as is shown in Fig. 3. The groove m2 defines a relatively close fittingguide about the wire and the groove is formed upon a sweep correspondingto the diameter of said wire. The forward edges of the guide members aretapered as at m3 to fit between the guide rollers b, as is shown in Fig.4.

At the intake side of said guide rollers, guide members and o; similarlyformed, lead the wire to'said feed rollers. The guide members m-m' andoo respectively are alined and preferably define a straight continuouspath leading to, thru and from said rollers. The guide members o0' aresecured to each other and are fastened to the frame of said machine byscrews p. Said cap screws are fastened in place so that a substantialdegree of tension is produced which must be overcome by the rollersdrawing a wire through said members 0o. This maintains the wire taut andstraight as it approaches the rollers.

The frame is bolted in place to some support by bolts q and the machineis diagrammatically shown as being driven by a pulley 1 fixed to theshaft of the lower feed roller as is shown in Fig. l. The pulleytransmits power to said lower feed roller and rotates it. The upper feedroller can serve as an idler, as is shown in the drawing, or can bepositively driven by some connection between said roller other than thegripping friction between the rollers and the wire as is shown.

In operation a wire is fed through the two guide members 0-0 and m-m,respectively, and between the two feed rollers b. The grippingcompression between two said rollers is fixed by manipulation of thespring adjusting nuts g. The forming die 2' is adjusted to its properposition with respect to the pathway defined by the guiding members 1nm.Power is then applied to the rollers through the pulley r and the wireis pulled through the guide members 0o and pushed through the guidemembers m-m into the forming die. The wire is maintained taut andstraight and the close fit of the guide members causes it to remainstraight and unbuckled until it reaches the forming die 1'. It is thencurved and formed into a spiral coil, as is shown in Fig. 3 and thespiral coil thus formed is led off by the chute l.

The longitudinal dimension of the chute is normal to the path of thewire entering the die but both lie substantially in the same horizontalplane, as is shown in the drawing.

The method I thus employ to form a wire in this manner is to push a wirethrough straight guides into the mouth of a forming die which is curved.The guides maintain the wire taut and prevent buckling so that theentire compression of the wire being pushed into the forming die can beutilized in forming said wire by said die. Thus, the only moving partsnecessary are the feeding mechanism for giving motion to said wire.

I claim:

1. A machine for forming a wire into a helical coil comprising a formingdie defining a pathway of predetermined helical curvature, a closefitting guide member directed towards said die defining a relativelystraight pathway, feeding means adapted to move said wire along saidlatter pathway, said means spaced from said die, a cooperating guidemember alined with the first mentioned guide member arranged at theintake side of said feeding means adapted to maintain the wire taut whenengaged by said feeding means and a carryoff guide arranged at thedischarge side of said die and located in substantially the samehorizontal plane as the point of discharge of said die.

2. A machine for forming a wire into a helical coil comprising a formingdie defining a pathway of predetermined helical curvature, a closefitting guide member directed towards said die defining a relativelystraight pathway, feeding means adapted to move said Wire along saidlatter pathway, said means spaced from said die, a cooperating guidemember alined with the first mentioned guide member arranged at theintake side of said feeding means adapted to maintain the wire taut whenengaged by said feeding means and a trough-like carry-off guide arrangedat the discharge side of said die and located in substantially the samehorizontal plane as the point of discharge of said die.

3. A machine for forming a wire into a helical coil comprising a formingdie defining a pathway of predetermined helical curvature, a closefitting guide member directed towards said die member defining arelatively straight pathway, a feed roller spaced from said die having aperipheral surface non-coincidental with that of said wire and acooperating guide member alined with the first mentioned guide memberarranged at the intake side of said roller said latter guide memberdefining a way of smaller cross section than that of said wire therebyadapted to maintain the wire taut when engaged by said roller.

4. A machine for forming a wire into a helical coil comprising a formingdie defining a pathway of predetermined helical curvature, a closefitting guide member directed towards said die defining a relativelystraight pathway, a pair of cooperating feed rollers spaced from saiddie, said rollers being spring pressed with respect to each other andsaid guide member spanning substantially the entire space between thefeeding rollers and the forming die, a cooperating guide member alinedwith the first mentioned guide member arranged at the intake side ofsaid rollers and adapted to maintain the wire taut when engaged by saidrollers and a carry-off guide arranged at the'discharge side of said dieand located in substantially the same horizontal plane as the point ofdischarge of said die.

5. The method of forming an elongated wire into predetermined helicalform comprising pulling said wire thru a guideway of smaller crosssection than said wire to produce tension in said wire and to straightenit, pushing said wire thru a similar close-fitting way into a curvedguideway formed to follow the desired helical form, thereby to give saidwire a corresponding curvature.

6. A machine for forming a wire into predetermined curved formcomprising a forming die defining a pathway of predetermined curvature,a close fitting guide member directed towards said die defining arelatively straight pathway, feeding means adapted to move said wirealong said latter pathway, said means spaced from said die and acooperating guide member defining a way of lesser cross section thansaid wire arranged at the intake side of said feeding means, therebyadapted to maintain the wire taut when engaged by said feeding means.

7. A machine for forming a wire into a helical coil comprising a formingdie defining a pathway of predetermined helical curvature, a closefitting guide member directed towards said die defining a relativelystraight pathway, a pair of cooperating feed rollers spaced irom saiddie, one of said feed rollers having a peripheral surfacenoncoincidental with that of said wire, said guide member spanningsubstantially the entire space between the feeding rollers 'and theforming die, a cooperating guide member alined with the first mentionedguide member arranged at the intake side of said rollers, said latterguide member defining a. way of smaller section than that of said wire,thereby adapted to maintain the wire taut when engaged by said rollers.

DANIEL MADDEN.

